motorola

Is getting fit one of your New Year's resolutions for the coming year? Whether you're just diving into a new regimen or need a better way to track your workouts, you'll love the new MotoACTV fitness tracker from Motorola.

Released in November, the MotoACTV promises to be your constant fitness companion, and with good reason. It can track calories burned, pace, speed, steps taken, and GPS route out of the box, and holds up to 16 GB of music and workout data. All features that will make anyone's workouts better, so I was happy to test out the 8 GB version that Motorola recently sent over ($250; the 16 GB version goes for $300).

The MotoACTV is slightly bigger than the iPod Nano, and like the Apple product, it has a simple interface making it completely intuitive as soon as you power it on. You can use it as a pedometer, and the home screen shows the time, steps taken, and calories burned for the day. By swiping left and right you can navigate to four more screens with different options. Five tactile buttons and one designated back button on the touch screen work all the main functions, which I appreciated since having easy-to-feel buttons made pausing music or finding my way back to my workout screen much faster than if I were fumbling my way through touch screens. And after entering your height and weight stats, the MotoACTV tracks the amount of calories you burn throughout the day, including your basal metabolic rate. When on the workout screen, you can choose between five styles — running, cycling, walking, elliptical, and step machine — and what type of workout you want (like racing against a previous personal best or setting a time and distance goal). During a workout a pleasant voice keeps you updated on certain milestones and how long you have left in your workout.

Keep reading for more on how the MotoACTV performs.

Though you may look at the brand-new MotoActv Fitness Tracker and think, "Wow, that looks just like an iPod Nano," this thing was meant to make you sweat.

Introduced this morning, the MotoActv is a small and portable hub for your fitness goals. Coming with a 1.6-inch Gorilla Glass touchscreen display and sweat-resistant band, the MotoActv tracks GPS for running and cycling, time, distance, speed, and calories burned during your workouts and stores up to 4,000 songs to keep you moving. But more than just a storage space for your favorite tunes, MotoActv is smart and deciphers which songs make you work harder and plays those more often.

MotoActv also syncs your workout data wirelessly with your online profile and is Bluetooth compatible, which allows you to take calls when your Android smartphone is nearby. Get your workout on with the MotoActv when it's released on Nov. 6 at two price points — 8GB of storage for $250 and 16GB for $300.

Does the $800 price tag for the Motorola Xoom get you down? Good news — a WiFi-only version of the Android tablet will be launching in the US on March 27 for just $599.

Running Android 3.0, the 10.1-inch tablet will be stocked with 32GB of on-board memory and come with all the bells and whistles of the 3G version (dual core 1Ghz processors, 1GB of RAM, etc.). Where can you get the new tablet? There are going to be plenty of retailers to choose from. Find out more after the break.

A lot of gadgets cross our desks at Sugar HQ, but rarely does one pique the interest of everyone — even the IT guy. The Motorola Atrix 4G and its optional accessories are like nothing I've seen before, most notably because it essentially turns into a fully functioning PC and home entertainment center. The phone runs on AT&T's new 4G network and connects via a dock to either a laptop or to your TV, complete with keyboard, mouse, and remote control, enabling you to view HD video.

What's in the box:
The phone, laptop dock, and TV dock are sold separately. The Atrix starts at $199 for the phone alone with a two-year contract. The laptop dock costs $499, but apply an instant $100 rebate and additional $100 mail-in rebate to bring the price to $299. The HD dock will run you an additional $130; $190 for the dock bundled with keyboard and mouse.

Find out more, including my take on the Atrix after the break.

We got our first look at the iPad during last year's Oscars, but this year it's Motorola that's pulling out all the stops to make sure the celebrity influences are well equipped with its product — some of this year's high-profile Academy Awards nominees and presenters will find a brand new Xoom tablet in their swag bags, made especially for the occasion and decked out in gold, along with a black leather envelope case.

Only the nominees in the best actor and actress, best supporting actor and actress, and best director categories will have the privilege of taking one home, but you'll soon be able to get your own original black version through Verizon for $600 on contract and at Best Buy when it launches on June 24. No gold for you.

If you've been holding off on buying your own limited-edition Droid R2-D2 phone (why?), here's a good reason to head for your credit card now: Verizon has dropped the price on the Star Wars-themed device to $100.

But that's not all: Verizon is also discounting the price on several other Android devices, like the Samsung Fascinate and the now-infamous Droid Incredible. While this could be a strategic move to get more Androids out the door before the Verizon iPhone 4 drops next week, I like to think that it's a sweet gift from Verizon to all of us during the short month of love.

After getting a good look at the Motorola Xoom tablet at CES (and wiping the drool away from my face — honestly, this thing is pretty slick up close), the Android Honeycomb-equipped tablet has had a release date and price leak. Turns out, Best Buy will be launching the 32GB tablet on Feb. 17 for $700.

While I'd prefer to pay less for the 10.1-inch Xoom, it is coming with some pretty impressive specs, especially when compared to the rumored build of the iPad 2. Want to see some specifics? Check out how the Xoom and iPad 2 should look head-to-head after the break.

We spent a lot of time tweeting and posting to Facebook over the CES weekend, and participating in the overall buzz of the event. You know which products were our faves, but which were the most buzz-worthy overall? Info site Webtrends takes a look at the most talked about company, phone, and tablet at this year's expo. Check out the results here!

Company
Samsung came out on top as the most talked about company, thanks in part to its new laptops and tablet hybrids. Closely following is Google and Microsoft. Surprisingly enough, despite much Xoom tablet fodder, Motorola placed fourth.

Celebrity
As we touched on before, Lady Gaga came out on top as the most talked about celeb on the Internet, but 50 Cent pulled ahead of Darth Vader in the end, taking second place in the buzz meter.

Find out which OS, phone, and tablet had the highest buzz factor after the break.

Motorola's website may have outed its tablet before its official announcement, but the Xoom was out in full force on the show floor at CES. We couldn't get our hands on the sleek 10.1-inch tablet, but we were given a run-through by a Motorola rep.

It seems like quite the machine from what I could tell, but you can get a look for yourself in the video after the jump.